Pipe Bending Equipment

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I'd like to add another "toy" to the shop this year.  A pipe bender would be very nice to have since I'd like to do roll-bars, etc.  I think, and I use that term loosely, that a mandrel type bender would give me the best results.For those who have and/or use pipe benders what are the differences and what make/brand seems to have the most versatility.thanks...Don
Reply:A real, honest-to-god pipe bender would be a delight to have, but they are really expensive.  I had to bend some 2" EMT for a small job a couple of years ago and did not have a good enough excuse to buy a Greenlee quality bender.  Instead, I bought the Harbor Freight 12-ton pipe bender for about $100 and made-do.This unit is the very rudimentary style of bender with hydraulic jack, frame, two rollers to restrain the workpiece on either side of the die, and a series of curved dies that fit various nominal pipe sizes and slip onto the end of the jack ram.  My main problem was that the standard pipe dies do not match the O.D.s of the EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing) I was working with.I believe the primary requirement of a pipe bender is to provide good support for the side walls of the pipe to restrain bulging sideways which leads to buckling of the inside of the bend.  To fill in the excess clearance between the die and the EMT workpiece I cut off about a 1 foot piece of the EMT to be bent and cut it in half lengthwise.  One of these lengthwise halves I cut into two 6" pieces to put between the EMT and the rollers that were such a small diameter that I think they would have dented the outside of the bends of the EMT.  In the remaining foot-long half-tube I sawed a series of transverse slots halfway from the cut edge down to the round side of the tube.  These slots allow the foot-long half-tube to bend easily to conform to the bending radius of the die without buckling or crimping.With the slotted insert filling the excess clearance between the workpiece and the die and the extra support for the EMT at the restraining rollers, I was able to produce very professional looking bends up to 90 degrees, the tightest I needed.  While this procedure would be much too cumbersome for production work, it worked great for my small job requiring only a dozen or so bends.awright
Reply:We are talking PIPE bending, not TUBE bending, right?I only ask because I found out the hard way. I bought some 1-1/2" schedule 40 aluminum pipe and started making something when I then figured out that what I thought was tubing was actually pipe. The die sets are different and expensive. I was able to bend the pipe in a tube die without any crinkles, but I think I was just lucky. JD2 told me I absolutely would not be able to do it.
Reply:Well, I believe that IT-Welder wants to bend some round, hollow, cylindrical things to make items like roll-bars.The only distinction between the terms metal pipe and metal tubing in the technical literature is that "pipe" comes in standardized, nominal sizes whose actual dimensions normally do not match the nominal size, while tubing normally comes in sizes whose dimension is normally identical to the nominal size.  [This is not true for EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing).]The dimension issue is, of course, important when buying a "XXXXX bender" because, ideally, the dies should fit the OD of the pipe/tubing you want to bend closely to get good quality bends.  My post was an effort to show that it is possible to bend tubing with a "pipe bender," and I presume the same procedure would work in the opposite direction (i.e., bending pipe with a "tubing bender."I wouldn't be surprised to find that "steel tubing" is usually used for roll-bars.  For example, Ron Fornier in his book, "Metal Fabricator's Handbook," says, "If you don't have a rules book to use as a guide for choosing roll-bar or cage material, use 1-3/4-in.-OD, 1/8-in.-(0.125 in.) wall, cold-drawn seamless-steel tubing."The bottom line is, be sure what the actual radius of the dies matches the actual O.D. of the workpiece of interest, no matter what it is called, or be prepared to improvise (and probably ruin some of your stock.).Another excellent method of supporting the wall of the hollow round object to be bent is to fill the bend area with a low-melting point alloy like "Bendalloy," that melts at about 160 degrees F.  Could get expensive for larger sizes of stock, as the alloy contains Bismuth, Lead, Tin, and Cadmium.  I don't know the price of Bendalloy.  You melt the material in a double boiler, pour it into the blocked tube to fill the bend area completely, bend the tube with whatever equipment you have on hand to give a uniform bend radius, and melt the alloy out of the bent tube.awright
Reply:IT-Welder,If your wanting to build roll bars, you need to use DOM steel tubing not pipe of any sort or you may get yourself or someone else killed. That said, you'll need a tubing bender not a pipe bender. They are not interchangeable. Poor bends can lead to faliure.The JD model 3 bender is a good basic bender, but if you do much bendiing of roll bar sized tube, you'll want to get the hydraulic powered one. Expect to spend $1500 or more on a setup.
Reply:Yeah, what PaulG said. I have the JD2 Model 4 with Enerpac Hydraulics. I could only afford two die sets to start off with. I have 2inch tube and 1-1/4 square. With shipping it was about $2,500.00. I told my friends that I would trade bending and labor if they buy the die set they need and I get to keep the die set. So far I have one taker.
Reply:check out www.pro-tools.com they make some great benders